


Pawns in the Game

by surrexi



Series: Home is Another Word for You [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-19
Updated: 2011-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-27 13:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrexi/pseuds/surrexi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the midst of increased rift activity, Rose Tyler appears in the plaza above Torchwood. Did the rift bring her there, or is something more serious happening in Cardiff?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally written in 2007, beta'd by my friends Nikki (unbrokensky@lj) and Beka (autumnjoy@lj), and posted on LJ and Teaspoon.

The brilliant light that had signaled the opening of the rift faded as Jack and Tosh sped towards the staircase. Jack hoped it was closing behind them, but he strongly suspected things would not — _could_ not — be so simple. He was rounding the landing midway down the stairs when something caught his eye and stopped him dead in his tracks. Toshiko nearly plowed into his back, but he didn’t notice.

 _Bad wolf._

There, on the wall. _Bad wolf_. He muttered the words under his breath and knelt down to touch them.

“Jack!” Tosh’s urgent voice barely registered as memories flooded Jack’s mind. Memories of nuclear power plants and eggs, satellites and Daleks, Rose Tyler and the right kind of Doctor. He traced his fingers over the letters one by one.

“Captain!” Tosh was practically shouting now, shaking his shoulder with a panicked edge to her movements. “Captain, we have to move!”

Jack shook himself out of his stupor. He kissed his fingers and pressed them to the wall, then shot to his feet and down the stairs. He was out the door and into Gwen’s arms before he’d really finished processing. As Gwen turned to hug Tosh, Jack stared up at the building, his mind racing. What did it mean, seeing the words that had dogged their steps there, in a place he was certain neither the Doctor nor Rose had ever visited? Was it a message, or a coincidence?

He pushed aside thoughts of the graffiti as well as lingering grief for his namesake. His team needed him — a fact underscored by Gwen’s return to his arms after hugging Tosh. He stroked her hair gently and pressed an absent kiss to the top of her head. There was more work to be done, and standing here feeling sorry for himself or confused about things wasn’t going to get it done.

“We should get back to the Hub,” he said, injecting as much authority and confidence into his tone as he could muster. “I’m sure Owen and Ianto will be wondering what’s happened.”

Gwen and Tosh nodded. “I’ll follow you in my car,” Gwen replied.

Jack and Tosh headed towards the SUV, Jack automatically heading for the driver’s seat. As they pulled away from the curb, he felt Tosh’s gaze burning into the side of his head.

“What does it mean, Jack?”

“What, Tosh?”

“Bad wolf,” she said impatiently. “What does it mean to you?”

Jack sighed, staring at the road ahead without consciously seeing it, only years of cultivating instincts keeping his driving impeccable. “It means my past is catching up with me.”

Or so he hoped.

* * *

“Rift activity has been increasing, slowly but steadily, since Owen opened it yesterday.” Tosh pointed to the CCTV feed of the plaza above their heads, where more people than usual milled about. Odd occurrences attracted attention, and the rift was causing more than its share of odd occurrences. The team stood behind her, watching as she gestured across the screen. “We know there’s a fault line here — we’ve always known that.” She gestured to other monitors, showing similar scenes in other cities across the country. “But now it seems there are more cracks… here…” she moved her hand across the blue-tinged picture of Trafalgar Square. “And here…” she touched the grainy image of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. She switched those two images to maps of the British Isles, peppered with red dots. “Increased rift activity in all these places.”

She turned around to face the team. “And that’s not all.” She clicked a button and one of the maps switched to a world map. “It’s not just Britain, it’s everywhere.”

“And this is my fault?” Owen interjected. “We’re blaming me?”

“I’ve run a profile on every reported temporal anomaly and tracked any physical or temporal pattern.” Toshiko turned back to the computer and hit a series of keys. Red lines appeared, connecting the dots so that they showed clear fault lines leading back to one place: Torchwood.

“Shit.” Gwen muttered.

“The cracks in time trace back here to the rift.” Jack’s voice was cold. “We are at the center. So yes, Owen. The rift is splintering because of you.” He fixed a hard stare on Owen, whose own eyes hardened in response.

“If it wasn’t for me, you two would still be in the 1940s. So are we going to sit around crying into our lattes, or shall we do something about it?” Owen looked at Jack expectantly, but Jack was no longer looking at Owen. His gaze was caught by the monitor still running CCTV feed of the plaza above. “Oi, Jack! You paying attention?” Owen’s voice rose slightly.

Jack ignored him and reached out to the monitor, his fingers brushing over a young-looking blonde turned mostly away from the camera. “Turn around,” he whispered, nearly inaudibly. “Turn around, sweetheart. Let me see your face.”

Gwen glanced around at the rest of the team, hoping that perhaps this behavior was some aspect of Jack’s personality she just hadn’t experienced before now. Unfortunately, they looked as mystified as she felt. She reached out and touched his shoulder lightly. “Jack?”

But her voice went unheard as the woman chose that moment to turn her face to the camera and Jack tensed.

“Rose Tyler.” His voice was low and controlled, but there was an undercurrent of excitement underneath that the team wasn’t sure they’d ever heard in it before. Then he lunged forward and kissed the screen smackingly, a huge grin on his face. “Rose Tyler, you beautiful girl!” Without stopping his motion, he pushed away from the console and sprinted towards the elevator. “Watch her!” he yelled over his shoulder. “If she leaves the plaza, I want to know where she goes!”

Gwen and Ianto ran after him. “Jack!” Gwen shouted. “What are you doing? Who is she?”

But Jack was tapping his foot impatiently and staring up towards the sky. Moments later, he’d reached the top, and Gwen and Ianto sprinted back to the monitors. The team watched in disbelief as Jack stepped into the plaza and ran towards the mystery woman. He shouted her name, and they could see as she turned that she was already saying his name before she caught sight of him.

“She knows him,” Ianto murmured. “She knows him by his voice.”

On the monitor, the woman had caught sight of Jack and was running to meet him. To the team’s continuing surprise, he caught her in his arms and spun her in circles, laughing delight evident on both of their faces. The team glanced around at each other incredulously. Jack was an affectionate man. But this _joy_ … this was new.

Out in the plaza, Jack stopped spinning but kept Rose off the ground. He rained quick kisses over her face, enjoying the sound of her laughter. Finally, he set her on her feet and smiled down at her.

“You are by _far_ the most beautiful thing I have seen in years, Rose Tyler.”

“Captain Jack Harkness.” She beamed. “I could say the same for you.” Jack kissed her full on the mouth, and it was so _Jack_ she could have cried. Friendship, affection, and something like love all tied up in one mostly-chaste kiss — no one could do that like Jack Harkness.

He pulled back and glanced around the plaza. “Is he —”

“No, he’s not with me.” Even after having spent three years in the parallel universe, her voice still broke over the admission. Jack’s face fell, but he gathered Rose against his chest.

“He didn’t leave you on purpose,” he said. It wasn’t a question, but she shook her head anyway.

“I got trapped in a parallel universe when we were savin’ the world. Epic battle between Daleks and-”

“Cybermen?” Jack exclaimed, pulling back to arm’s length to see her better. At her nod, he let out a short laugh. “You survived Canary Wharf? Your name was on the casualty list.” He pressed a joyous kiss to her lips. “God, I thought I was going to have to spend our entire time together now avoiding the subject so as to not discuss your death! So he was there, then… of course he was there. Who else could save the Earth from Cybermen and Daleks at the same time?”

Rose nodded sadly. “Only the last of the Time Lords. He opened the void so that everything that had passed through it and had void stuff on it would get sucked in. We’d been through it because we got trapped in the parallel world once, with Mickey.”

“Mickey the Idiot traveled with you?”

Rose punched his shoulder. “That’s Mickey Smith, Defender of the Earth to you, Captain Harkness.” Jack took one look at her face and wisely contained a chuckle. Rose continued. “He tried to send me to the parallel world along with Mum an’ Mickey an’ my dad from the parallel world, but I came back.”

“Somehow, I’m not surprised.”

“Yeah, well. He was going to let me stay, he knew I wouldn’t leave him, an’ we were holding on to these, I don’t know, these weighty things this secret government agency called Torchwood had built from alien tech. But I… I couldn’t hold on. An’ I almost got sucked into the void, but Dad came back and caught me and took me to the other world.” Her eyes filled with tears. Jack reached out and tenderly tucked her hair behind her ear.

“And you never saw him again.”

Rose smiled sadly. “He burned up a sun to say goodbye.” She sniffed. “Set the TARDIS orbiting a supernova and projected himself through a tiny little tear.”

Jack returned her smile. “He loved you.”

She nodded. “Oh, I know. I always knew.”

Jack wished he could be so sure for himself. From either of them.

He glanced around the plaza. Most people were ignoring them, though some watched with smiles on their faces, probably imagining long-lost lovers with epic love stories. Jack put his hand at the small of Rose’s back and led her towards the front entrance of the Hub.


	2. Chapter 2

“So, Rose Tyler. What have you been doing with yourself over in the parallel world?”

“Actually, they had their own version of Torchwood, better than the one here that brought in the Cybermen and Daleks and almost destroyed the world. I joined up. Put my knowledge of aliens an’ time vortices to good use.”

“Funny you should say that,” Jack said, his voice tinged with amusement. He pulled open the door to the front desk area and was mildly surprised that Ianto wasn’t there waiting. Then again, he supposed everyone had watched the display on the monitors and was waiting in the Hub expectantly.

“After the Cybermen,” he continued, “this Earth got a new and improved Torchwood as well.” He opened the wall and gestured Rose into the lift. “No government involvement, from any country. And I’m sort of running one of the posts.”

Rose blinked, but recovered before the lift hit the lower level. “Ah, I see the Captain part actually stuck this time around?”

Jack chuckled. “You could say that.”

As the lift doors opened, Jack threaded his fingers through Rose’s. She squeezed his hand affectionately and bumped his shoulder with hers. “Oh,” she exclaimed as they walked forward. “If you’re Torchwood, maybe you can explain to me why I was able to get here. I mean, through the rift, I suppose, but how? It’s only supposed to be a rift in time, not between universes.”

He grinned. “All in good time, Sweetheart.” He led her into the Hub and stopped once they’d gotten past the gate. “First you can meet my team.” With his free hand, he gestured towards the group still gathered at the monitors, now watching Rose with a mix of open shock and curiosity.

“Hi,” Rose said with a smile. When the team continued to gape, Jack sighed a little.

“That’s Toshiko there at the computer, she’s a genius with them. Owen, behind her, he’s our doctor. Gwen, next to him, she joined us recently, out of the Cardiff police. And that’s Ianto in the suit, he keeps everything from falling apart around here.”

Rose smiled again, gave a little wave with her free hand. Her gaze rested on Gwen a few extra moments, her expression unreadable beneath the pleasant smile. “Guys,” Jack continued, “this is Rose. I traveled with her for a while before I came here. And she saved me from getting blown to smithereens once.” He glanced down at her then. “I did thank you for that, right?”

“You saved me from getting blown to smithereens first, Jack. Also from going splat, come to think of it.”

He kissed her forehead and laughed at the mental image of her hanging from a barrage balloon. “I suppose. But thanks anyway.”

He tugged lightly on her hand. “As to how you got here,” he began as he led her down the stairs and towards the console and the team. “Perhaps you can help us figure the particulars of that one out. Presumably Rose got here through the rift,” he said to the team. “From a parallel world where she’d… been for a few years, which means this could be even more of a problem than we thought. The rift’s not supposed to work like that. Still, Rose has done a lot of traveling and worked for our counterparts in the other universe, so having her here could be quite an advantage.”

“How does _traveling_ help?”

Jack turned a bland face to Owen, the first of the team to speak since Rose had entered the Hub. “I don’t mean cross-country,” Jack replied, and left it at that.

He and Rose began to discuss the rift and the events surrounding its opening by Owen.

“It’s a good job he did bring you back,” she muttered when Jack got to that part. “You could have run into yourself if you weren’t careful and then where would we be?” She punched his shoulder lightly. “We already had confused nanogenes and falling bombs. A vortex problem would have just put the cap on it, aye?”

The team exchanged looks over this as Jack chuckled and continued the discussion, but let it pass unquestioned. Still, it was odd to find themselves forced to accept that a girl who looked barely out of her teens knew more about their captain’s past than they did. Slowly, though, they joined in Jack and Rose’s conversation.

They noticed that though Jack did eventually drop Rose’s hand, the two of them still seemed to be in each other’s personal space, even if they weren’t touching. And while Jack was prone to touching in general, it seemed he and Rose did it so often and with such unconscious affection that the team was still surprised to see it. Their movements and the flow of their voices seemed to have a strange syncopated grace, as if they were harmonies to a missing melody.

“So, Phase One,” Jack began as the conversation wrapped. “Go find those who’ve fallen through the cracks and bring them here, to the vaults.”

“Aside from me,” Rose put in.

Jack gave a half-smile. “Aside from Rose.”

“Right, so we bring them all here,” Owen interjected. “And then what? What do we do with them?”

“We’ll deal with phase one first, then I’ll tell you about phase two.” When I’ve thought of it, he silently added. Good thing no one on his team was a mind reader.

“You can’t control time,” Owen argued. “You can’t send them back! What are you gonna do?” His voice rose with each word, ending on a shout.

“We’ll think of something!” Jack’s voice snapped out. Rose laced her fingers back through his under the watchful eyes of his team, but only the slightest bit of tension eased from his shoulders. The others in the room seemed to deflate, and Owen suddenly found himself fascinated by the floor.

“Hey,” Jack said, lowering his voice to a soothing tone. “This is _not_ the end of the world.” Tosh and Gwen nodded skeptically. “I’m certain of that,” Jack added, glancing at Rose, who nodded emphatically. After all, she’d _been_ to the end of the world, and this wasn’t it.

“Like the man said. _Not_ the end of the world.” She tried a reassuring smile. “Just a sort of… hiccup.”

The computer behind them beeped, and Ianto went to check it. When he turned back, his face was even more solemn than usual. “Priority one attendance requested at the hospital. Mortality rate’s gone through the roof.” He shifted his gaze from Jack to Owen. “They’re sealing off the area and designating it a hot zone.”

“I’ll go,” Owen said immediately, grabbing his earpiece and heading for the door.

“Tosh, go with him.”

“Uh, no thanks, I’m fine on my own.”

Tosh glanced from Jack to Rose’s hand in Jack’s to Owen. “And you’ll be even better with me alongside.” She grabbed his arm and tugged. “Shut up and come on.” She thought it was the epitome of self-control that she refrained from suggesting that if he didn’t leave, not even the apparently soothing presence of this Rose Tyler person would keep Jack from killing Owen out of sheer frustration.

Rose watched with undisguised interest as Jack interacted with his team. It was so different, seeing him in charge instead of deferring to the Doctor. She thought that she’d like having him for a boss, though there was no way they could see each other as anything but equals after what they’d been through together — and she was fairly certain he wasn’t even aware of the fact that she was the one who’d brought him back to life. Still, it amused her a little to watch as Gwen rounded on Jack as soon as Owen and Tosh were out of earshot.

“Did you have to pick on him in public like that? And in front of a stranger?” she added, her eyes flicking to Rose.

“All our actions have consequences,” he replied, dropping Rose’s hand and taking a step toward Gwen.

“And all your staff have feelings, Jack.” Gwen lifted her chin. “Even Owen.”

Jack huffed. “Well, you would know.” He shook his head and put his hand against Rose’s back to lead her out of the room.

“He brought you back!” Gwen called after him. “Would you rather be stuck in World War II?”

Jack continued walking with Rose, leading her to his office.

“And her, I don’t think she’d be here without Owen,” Gwen added. She would have followed Jack, but her phone rang and she stopped to answer it, letting out a frustrated blast of air before snapping a tense hello into the phone.

“What _are_ you going to do with everyone, Jack?” Rose asked quietly as they walked.

“I was hoping you’d have some ideas, to be honest.” Rose glanced at Jack’s face at his words, hoping to see a characteristic self-deprecating smile, a laugh in the face of certain death. But Jack’s face was grim, and for the first time she realized that even underneath his joy at seeing her again, there had been a strong undercurrent of sorrow. Sorrow she thought didn’t just stem from the current situation. It ran too deep, was etched too strongly in his face, shimmered too far behind his eyes for it to be fresh.

They’d just reached his office when Gwen’s shout had Jack turning around. She and Ianto jogged the short distance to the office.

“That was Andy,” Gwen told Jack. “He’s got a bit of a problem, and he didn’t know who else to call.”

“Oh?”

“Apparently he’s caught himself a murder suspect who seems to be a Roman soldier.”

“Ooh,” Rose interjected. “Didn’t get ‘round to Romans before, ought to be interestin’.”

Jack squeezed her shoulder lightly. “You stay here, Rose.” He cut her off before she could object. “I just found you. I’m not losing you again so soon, so you’re staying here where it’s safe. For now, anyway,” he added in an attempt to convince her to stay. He looked steadily into her eyes, and the seriousness in his gaze, that hint of sadness she’d already noticed, had her deflating.

“Right. You know, the Doc-“

“Well, you said yourself he’s not here.” Jack’s voice went businesslike at the mention of the Doctor, and something in his eyes warned her not to push the subject of him in front of the others. Jack turned to Ianto. “Ianto, stay here with Rose. Get her on the computers; you two can help monitor things from here.” He picked up a spare earpiece from his desk and handed it to Rose.

“Put that on. You’ll stay here, with Ianto?”

“Oh, fine.” Rose sighed in defeat. “’Course I will. Go on wi’ Gwen, Ianto and I’ll keep things runnin’ here.” She glanced at Ianto and smiled before returning her gaze to Jack’s.

“Okay.” He tapped the earpiece she’d put in her ear. “You need anything, you let me know.”

“Hey,” she replied, touching his hand. “Same goes, yeah?”

He smiled slightly at that, his first smile since before Owen and Tosh had left for the hospital. “Always,” he murmured. Then he pressed a quick, affectionate kiss to her forehead before turning to go. “Gwen, with me.” He pulled Ianto aside and clasped his shoulder.

“I’m trusting you with her, Ianto. You.” He squeezed Ianto’s shoulder and held his eyes. “Don’t let me down, okay?”

Ianto nodded mutely, his eyes solemn. Jack squeezed his shoulder once more, gave a quick grin, and then led Gwen away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clarify, for the purposes of this story Rose knows that she brought Jack back to life, but has no idea that it was permanent. Basically, she remembers wanting him alive and making him that way, but doesn't know the full repercussions of her action.

Ianto looked over at Rose. Who was she, this girl with whom Jack interacted as an equal rather than as captain, but of whom he was fiercely protective? What were they to each other? And what did it mean for the team, for him?

“Is he always this sad?” Rose’s question barely broke through Ianto’s racing thoughts.

“I’m sorry?”

“Jack,” Rose repeated. “Is he always this sad?”

“Sad?” Ianto echoed, a tinge of disbelief in his tone. “I’ve never seen him this _happy_. Rift and all,” he added at Rose’s expression of doubt. He shook his head as if to shake off the oddness of the situation. “Let’s get you set up on a computer.”

He led Rose down to the stairs.

“Is that a… a _hand_?”

Ianto glanced behind to see Rose staring at the hand Jack kept in a jar at the foot of the stairs. “Uh, yes. It is. Don’t ask me,” he said in response to the question forming in Rose’s eyes. “It belongs to the captain. He won’t talk about it.”

Rose narrowed her eyes and got closer to the jar. There was something _familiar_ about the hand, beyond the fact that it appeared to be a male, human hand. She studied it for the space of a few breaths, then shook her head and turned away. Clearly Jack had been through a lot since she’d resurrected him and then abandoned him five minutes later. Not that the abandonment part had been her fault; she placed the blame, if it needed to be placed at all, at the feet of her second Doctor. Oh, she loved him, of course. But she always did feel badly that he’d just left Jack. Even if he had insisted that he had to do it, and he knew because of a Time Lord thing.

Shaking off thoughts of the Doctor, she followed Ianto to the computers. Time to get to work. But she resolved to explain as much as she could to Jack about what had happened on Satellite 5 as soon as the Rift business was wrapped up.

Ianto showed Rose the setup and the two of them set to compiling data from Toshiko’s many monitoring programs. Rose was absorbed in trying to find patterns by cross-referencing the time periods people were appearing from with the location of their appearance when Ianto finally lost his battle to not question.

“So,” he began. “You traveled with Jack?”

Rose looked up from the screen. It was clear that Jack hadn’t been forthcoming about his past with his team. Rose wasn’t quite sure what she could and couldn’t say. “That’s right,” she replied, settling on vague. “For a time.”

“Traveled where?”

Rose hesitated. “Oh, all over.” She _hated_ being deliberately vague.

“But you met him during World War II?” Ianto pressed.

Rose’s eyes widened slightly. Had she said that? Had Jack? She remembered her offhand comment to Jack about vortex problems — Ianto must have put two and two together and drawn his conclusion from there. Rose sighed. “Well, yes.”

Ianto waited as if expecting Rose to elaborate. When she didn’t, he continued to press. “So then how did you end up in a parallel universe?”

This Rose could answer, albeit while leaving out a few key points. Like the Doctor. But less vague than her previous answers. Which she appreciated.

“It was during the Battle of Canary Wharf.” She looked over at Ianto, wanting to know exactly how much she could reveal. She knew the official Torchwood line in the parallel world, but had no idea how it differed from the one here. “How much do you know about what happened that day?”

“The original Torchwood splintered in the aftermath, so the records are incomplete. They say that the Doctor himself was there, hundreds of years after inspiring Torchwood’s creation.” He searched Rose’s expression, but it was carefully blank. Ianto continued. “The Doctor — if he was really there — or someone else managed to open a hole in the universe and all the Daleks and Cybermen got pulled into the void. Then the hole closed.”

Rose nodded. “I was there. The hole in our universe actually went to this parallel one — that’s where the Daleks and Cybermen came from. Their Torchwood was helping us — only fair, aye? When we opened the hole to the void, I almost got sucked in with the bad guys, but my… someone from the parallel universe came back and took me there, because the hole to the void wasn’t open on their side.” Rose laughed mirthlessly. “I was saved, but the only thing was, I was stuck. The hole was closed, and I was stuck.”

She glanced at the monitors, willing memories of the bleak hours she spent pressed against the wall away. “Until Owen opened the rift here. Which actually shouldn’t have helped, because that’s supposedly only a rift in time. It shouldn’t be able to cross the void.” She sighed. “Not that I’m complaining, I suppose, as it brought me home, to Jack.” She managed a small smile. “I’ve missed him. I’m sure you’d understand that.”

Ianto nodded slowly, then gestured around at the Hub. “None of this surprises you. None of it upsets you.”

“I did work for the parallel Torchwood for three years, Ianto. An’ I’ve seen much more than you’d guess I had just by lookin’ at me.”

“Right.” He turned back to the monitors, still not sure how he felt about Rose Tyler or what it meant that she was there.

Shortly thereafter, Jack and Gwen returned, unconscious legionnaire in tow. Rose jumped up with an apologetic glance at Ianto and followed the others down to the vaults.

“It’s kind of too bad you had to knock him out,” Rose said after the soldier had been laid on the floor.

“Easy for you to say.” Jack rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck a little. “You’re not the one who had to retrieve him. You’re a sweet one, Rose,” he added, tapping her nose as he spoke. “But I don’t think even you could have calmed him down enough to prevent this eventuality.”

Rose shrugged. “’Spose I wouldn’t have understood him anyway, without…” She trailed off. Jack nodded, knowing that she referred to the TARDIS’ ability to translate in one’s head.

Jack pulled out a scanner and began examining the soldier. Gwen, who had given up trying to work out what Rose and Jack were referencing three-quarters of the time they spoke to each other, decided to change the subject.

“If Owen managed to open the rift to get you and Tosh back, can’t we do the same thing for these people?” She gestured to the soldier and to the surrounding cells. “We’ve still got the rift manipulator.”

“There’s a world of difference,” Jack replied, shaking his head. “We’re talking about taking control of time, not bringing two people back from the past.”

Rose nodded. “You need more than a rift manipulator to do that.”

“Exactly. Besides,” Jack added, “look at the damage Owen caused. We mess with it further…”

“The whole planet could go pfft,” Rose finished, splaying her fingers for emphasis.

Gwen looked between the two of them doubtfully.

“Have I ever let you down?” Jack asked, his face serious.

Knowing it was what he wanted, Gwen mustered a smile. “I’ll go check with Ianto, see if anything’s come up.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as Gwen was down the hall, Rose knelt down so that she was eye to eye with Jack across the prone soldier and spoke in an urgent whisper. “What you said about taking control of time… do you think…” She broke off, unable to actually get out the words.

“Do I think that _he’ll_ show up?” Jack exhaled through his teeth and rubbed his hand over his forehead. “I don’t know, Rose.” He dropped his hand and met her eyes. “But, God, I hope he does.”

“It feels like the sort of situation the TARDIS would be drawn to, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it does. But we can’t sit on our hands and wait.”

“No, of course not.” She glanced down at the soldier. “Jack, you know this isn’t it, right? Him, me, the others who’ve come through? We can’t possibly be the point.” She shivered slightly though it was warm in the vaults. “And I can feel something coming.”

Jack shook his head. “I know it.” He braced his hands on his knees and stood up. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” He offered Rose his hand, and she took it. He pulled her up and kept her hand in his as they exited the cell. Jack was just closing the door behind them when Gwen stumbled down the hall.

“Gwen?” he said, a trace of concern coloring his tone. When she looked up at him, her eyes were wide and her face pale. He dropped Rose’s hand and was at Gwen’s side in a second. “What’s happened?”

“I saw him. Right in front of me, right here.”

“Who, Gwen?” He cupped her cheek with his hand, the tips of his fingers threading into her hair. The contact soothed her, and she took a deep breath.

“Bilis Manger, the dancehall manager.” She gestured to a nearby empty cell. “Right in there, and he spoke to me.”

“You’re sure it was him?”

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

“Just that he was sorry.”

Jack’s brow wrinkled slightly in confusion and he dropped his hand from Gwen’s face. “Sorry? What’s he sorry about?”

Before Gwen could answer, Ianto burst through the door, a handcuffed weevil in tow. “Coming through!”

Rose gave a startled yelp, but recovered quickly. “Weevils? Jack, there shouldn’t be…”

Jack glanced back at her. “I know, but they’re here anyway. They’re about the least strange thing the rift coughs up.” He rubbed Gwen’s shoulder absently as he spoke, keeping his eyes on Rose. “You’re probably the strangest thing to get coughed up, actually. All things considered.”

“All things being the fact that until a few hours ago, I was trapped in a parallel universe?”

“Exactly.”

By now Ianto had secured the weevil in a cell. He ran a hand through his hair. “Thirteen more reports of weevils on the loose. We can’t keep up at this rate.”

Jack grimaced. “Everything’s on the increase. Even the rate of increase is increasing.”

“We’re all full on the main vault levels,” Ianto said. “Do you want me to activate the vaults below? It’s just we’ve never used them since I’ve been here.”

Jack nodded. “Do it. Gwen, Rose, with me. Let’s run a check on our friend the dancehall manager.”


	4. Chapter 4

Jack, Gwen, and Rose were at the computers running their checks on Bilis when Owen and Toshiko returned from the hospital. Jack looked up as the gate opened.

“Owen. How was the hospital?”

“Laugh a bloody minute,” Owen replied, his voice even more caustic than usual. Toshiko walked numbly to her workstation while Owen continued. “They’ve got an outbreak of the Black Death.”

“What?” Gwen’s mouth fell open in shock. “Oh my God.”

Jack turned to Tosh. “Have they got it under control?” Tosh was staring sightlessly at her monitor and didn’t respond. Jack slammed his hand down on her desk. “Tosh! How are they coping?”

“Um,” she managed, startled out of her stupor. “Owen got the place quarantined and organized treatments for those who’ve been infected.”

“Only consolation is, it’s treatable these days.” Owen’s voice was full of frustration and barely-leashed anger. “But you know, what happens when the next carrier comes through, Jack? One with smallpox, or Ebola, or something from the future we don’t even know about? What do we do then?”

Jack grimaced, then schooled his features to neutral. Rose tensed. She didn’t know Jack’s team, but she knew Jack. And Jack was close to his boiling point.

“Yeah, well, it’s not doing us any good standing around speculating.” Jack turned to head towards his office, his arm rising to reach for Rose, when Owen blocked his path.

“We need to be prepared! We’re helpless! All we’re doing here is putting sticking plasters on gaping wounds!”

Rose moved ever so slightly closer to Jack. Not that she’d have the brute strength to stop Jack from lunging at Owen in case his temper blew, but she felt better if she was close enough to at least try.

“What do you suggest, Dr. Harper?”

“I suggest you lead us! Tell us where the instructions for the rift manipulator are-“

Gwen cut Owen off. “Owen…”

“No!” he insisted. “I’m just saying what we’re all thinking.” Owen stepped closer to Jack, getting up in his face. “You’re the big man here, you keep all the secrets. Not just about yourself, but about our own bloody jobs!”

Rose could practically feel the anger vibrating off Jack. “Um, gentlemen?” she tried to interrupt, but neither one paid attention.

“It’s time you let us in on a few of those secrets, _Captain_. So tell us. How the hell are you going to get us out of this one?”

“You want to know a secret, Owen? I’ll tell you a secret: there is no solution.” Rose thought Jack was sounding far too reasonable, so she inched forward again and laid a tentative hand at the small of his back. He continued speaking as if he hadn’t noticed. “I can’t fix this, it’s beyond me. And do you know why, Owen?” Some of the calm started to leak out of his tone. “Because it was never meant to happen. The first thing, the first goddamn thing that you learned when you joined Torchwood was ‘don’t mess with the rift’. But you, oh you thought you knew better, and you disobeyed orders and now _everything_ that’s happening is down to _you_.”

“I only disobeyed orders to get you back.”

“And now people are dying,” Jack snapped out. Rose’s fingers bunched in his shirt.

“What?” Owen responded immediately. “So I shouldn’t have bothered? You’d be stuck in 1941, and by the way, you wouldn’t have your precious Rose Tyler back. I don’t see you complaining about her or locking her in a cell in the vault like the others.”

Jack’s voice went deadly calm. “You leave her out of this.”

“Why? Why is she different? You cut me down because I took a risk and brought you back, and you get angry about every other person and alien that’s fallen through the rift since then, but Rose bloody Tyler comes through and that’s fucking daisies.”

Jack clenched his jaw and merely reached to where Rose’s hand was still clinging to his shirt and laced his fingers with hers.

Owen’s eyes flashed. “Right. And who the fuck are you anyway? Jack Harkness? You don’t even _exist_.” He gestured to the team. “We’ve looked! So if you’re not even a real person on top of being a bloody hypocrite, then why the hell should I be following your orders?”

“Get out.” Jack’s voice still retained the cold, dead calm of his previous statement. Owen blinked.

“What?”

“Get out!” Now Jack’s voice fired up. It was a toss-up whether the cold fury or the fiery rage was scarier. “I’m relieving you of your duty.”

Tosh and Gwen immediately began voicing their dissent.

“Bollocks, you are!” Owen exclaimed.

Jack closed the short distance between them, until he was practically nose to nose with Owen. “You’re done here.”

Pulling Rose behind him, Jack pushed past Owen towards his office.

Owen scoffed loudly. “So that’s it? The whole fucking world is going to shit and you’re _firing_ me?”

“For God’s sake!” Gwen burst out. “Both of you! We need to stick together on this, all of us!”

Jack turned to look at his team. “If I can’t rely on you, if I don’t have your complete trust, you don’t belong here.” He gazed at each in turn. “That goes for the rest of you. Anyone here who agrees with Owen, leave now.” If it hadn’t been for the fact that Rose was still holding his hand and he’d squeezed it rather tightly, she might have thought he was confident no one else would leave. But his fingers didn’t relax until it became clear that the rest of the team was frozen in place.

“So now we know how it is,” Owen said bitterly. “Guess that leaves me twenty-four hours to savor the good times.”

Gwen looked up sharply. “What do you mean, what are you talking about?”

“Oh, think about it, Gwen. Nobody leaves this place intact. Sometime in the next twenty-four hours…” he paused, trained his gaze on Jack. “I get Ret-conned. All my memories erased. I don’t know where or when. But he’ll get me.”

Jack’s face was expressionless. Beside him, Rose knew hers was probably bordering on incredulous. She didn’t think now would be the time to interrupt, however, so she simply began rubbing circles on Jack’s hand with her thumb.

“Jack,” Gwen said in a shocked voice. “This has gone far enough.” Jack said nothing, moved not a muscle.

“So I guess this is goodbye,” Owen finally said. He put his gun down on a table and headed for the door. “Good luck with the end of the world.” He glanced at Gwen and felt a pang of sadness. “I’d say thanks for the memories, but…”

“Jack, for God’s sake!”

But Jack didn’t respond to Gwen’s outburst, or Toshiko’s pleading expression, or the pained shock in Ianto’s eyes. He didn’t react as Owen left the Hub. When the doors closed behind Owen, and Jack’s team was staring at him with a mixture of shock and pleading, he closed his eyes. He needed a moment. Just one moment.

“I’ll be in my office, with Rose. Keep looking for Bilis. Come get me when you find him.”

Without another word, he led Rose back to the office. He sat down at his desk and, resting his elbows on the scarred wood, he put his head in his hands. Rose stood across the desk watching him.

“Are you really going to wipe his memory?” she asked tentatively.

“It’s procedure,” he muttered. He was furious with Owen, but even more furious with himself for letting his temper get the better of him. And furious with both of them for being pigheaded enough to land themselves in this position in the first place.

“How long has he worked here?”

“About two years,” Jack murmured. He could see where Rose was going with this.

“Two years,” she repeated. Jack raised his head and met her gaze, and she watched his expression carefully. “That’s a lot of time to take away from a man.”

“I’m well aware of that,” he snapped, and Rose didn’t think he’d ever spoken to her with so much bite. He hissed out a breath, frustration evident in his face. “As you know, which is why you brought it up in the first place.”

Rose said nothing and moved to stand behind Jack’s chair. She put her hands on his shoulders and rubbed gently.

“I’m counting on him not being able to stay away,” he admitted after a few minutes of silence. Rose stopped rubbing, and Jack turned his chair so that he was facing her. “If he doesn’t come back, give me an excuse not to, I don’t know if I can…” He trailed off miserably.

Rose reached out and cupped his cheek tenderly. “You are such a good man, Jack Harkness.”

He leaned into her touch. “I don’t know about that.”

“I know about that,” she said firmly.

Jack gave a sad smile, then turned his head to press a soft kiss to her palm.

“Captain,” Gwen said from the doorway. She’d stood there unnoticed since just after Jack had turned to face Rose, and she fought down the lump in her throat at the tender scene. “Ianto’s wanting you for something to do with the vaults.”

Jack nodded and rose from his chair. “And Bilis?”

“Tosh says she’s almost got him pinned down.”

Jack nodded. “Stay here,” he said to Rose as he brushed by Gwen and left the office, leaving the two women alone.

After a moment or two of merely staring at each other, Rose broke the silence. “Are you going to interrogate me like Ianto did?” She tried a smile. “You two are almost as protective of Jack as I am.”

“What is he to you, and you to him?” Gwen’s arms were crossed over her chest, and her face had that policewoman edge she got when questioning someone.

Rose took a deep breath and opted for honesty. Seemed to be the best bet, woman to woman. “While I was in the parallel universe, there was only one person I missed more than I missed Jack. My mum, my best mate… they’re still in the parallel universe. And even knowing that, even though I love them, I wouldn’t trade what I have right now to go back to them.” She paused meaningfully. “That’s what Jack and I are to each other.”

Gwen nodded, eyes wide. “Well, then,” she murmured.

“I’ve got him!” they heard Tosh yell from her workstation. Gwen gestured out.

“We should probably…”

“Check it out, yeah,” Rose finished. “Gwen.”

Gwen looked over to Rose.

“I’m sorry. If I’ve made things even more difficult than they already would have been. Not sorry to be here, mind,” she interrupted herself. “But I don’t mean to cause you, or anyone else here, pain.” She walked toward Gwen, smiling slightly. “You look very much like someone I met once, a long time ago. She was one of the bravest people I’ve ever known. For what it’s worth, you don’t just remind me of her because you look like her.”

Gwen nodded. “Thank you.”


	5. Chapter 5

Gwen, Jack, and Rose stood in Bilis’ clock shop.

“Wow,” Gwen murmured.

Rose nodded in agreement. “Some of this stuff must go back centuries.”

“He scavenges antique pieces from the past, brings them here, sells them for a profit.” The part of Jack that still felt like a con man was impressed. “Not a bad business plan, actually.”

“We all have to earn a living.” At the sound of Bilis’ voice, all three of them spun to face him.

“You’re from 1941,” Jack began.

“As were you,” Bilis said mildly. “Though perhaps not originally?” He turned to Gwen. “Hello again. And hello for the first time,” he said to Rose, who merely tilted her head and looked at Bilis appraisingly.

“How can you be in two time zones at once?” Gwen asked him.

“I can step across eras, like you’d walk into another room. At first it was the most incredible gift. Now I know the reality. It’s a curse.”

“Why?” Gwen pressed.

“I can see the whole of history, but I don’t belong anywhere within it.”

Rose tensed, hearing her own voice in her head. _I can see the whole of time and space…_ Something about Bilis made her wildly uncomfortable. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a battered pair of 3-D glasses. Her last souvenir of the Doctor, suddenly useful once more.

“So, your return this time had a price.” Bilis spoke to Jack now, as Rose surreptitiously slipped on the glasses. “Time’s splintering. This city exists on a rift in time.” Hoping no one had noticed what would surely appear to them as a brief bout of insanity, Rose slipped off the glasses almost immediately after putting them on. She’d seen what she needed to see. Bilis, covered in void stuff, spoke on. “The only way to make it right is to fully open the rift — let it suck back what fell through.”

Jack shook his head. “No way. It’s too dangerous.” And it might mean I’d lose Rose, he added silently. There was no possible way he’d let that happen.

“Can we even do that?” Gwen asked.

“Of course you can,” Bilis said pleasantly. “Isn’t that right, Captain?”

“There’s a difference between what can be done an’ what should be done,” Rose put in when Jack said nothing.

Gwen glanced from Rose to Jack. “Jack?”

“You’ve seen what’s happened. If we open the rift more fully, millions of lives will be at risk.”

“And yet, if you don’t, more will fall through. Lives will be lost.”

Rose glared at Bilis. There was so much going on behind his cordial veneer. She wished the Doctor was there. He’d surely know the right thing to say to get Bilis to trip over his own plans. While Rose glared, Jack drew his gun.

“You know so much, you’re coming with us,” he told Bilis.

But the man merely shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said, then disappeared.

“Damn it!” Jack exclaimed. He touched his earpiece. “Tosh! Trace the temporal activity around this location.” He glanced from Gwen to Rose. “We need to find out where he is.” He grabbed Rose’s hand and touched Gwen’s shoulder. “Let’s go!”

He and Rose raced out of the shop, though Gwen lingered. Rose saw that they had a moment and she stopped moving, pulling Jack to a stop beside her. “I need to tell you something,” she said quickly. Jack glanced towards the shop, saw Gwen was still inside, and nodded.

“Do you remember what I told you about void stuff?”

Jack nodded. “You get it from traveling between parallel universes. What about it?”

Rose pulled out her 3-D glasses and handed them to Jack. “Put these on and look at your hand — nothing, right? Now look at me.”

“Rose! There’s…”

“Void stuff. All over me.” She took the glasses off Jack’s face and met his gaze seriously. “And all over that man.”

“What?”

“Jack, he’s not just a time-traveler. He’s been through the void.” She tucked the glasses back into her pocket carefully. “Something is going on here, Jack. Something bad.”

He nodded. He was about to reply when Gwen burst out of the shop. “Gwen!” he shouted. “What took you so long?”

But Gwen made no reply. A panicked look on her face, she simply ran past them and kept on running.

“Gwen!” they shouted, and ran after her.

  
After retrieving Rhys from Gwen’s flat, when Gwen was in the vaults waiting for Rhys to wake up, Jack and Rose were shut up in his office discussing Rose’s discovery that Bilis was covered in void stuff.

“You’re absolutely certain?” Jack was pacing back and forth while Rose watched him from his desk chair.

“Jack. There are things I learned from the Doctor that I might be fuzzy on after three years without him. But void stuff? Void stuff is not one of ‘em.”

“Okay, so then what does it mean?” He paused in his pacing and faced Rose. “I mean, I would love to believe that it’s just a coincidence he’s been through the void.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rose agreed. “So would I. But I think we both know that’s a bit unlikely.”

“A bit.” He resumed his pacing. “Too bad.”

“Okay, okay, we’ve got to think.” Rose rubbed her forehead. “I’ve dealt with this rift twice before, and you’ve lived on it for years now, and neither of us has ever seen it act as a bridge between parallel worlds. Yet here I am, and here he is.”

“Yes.”

“And judging from everything the Doctor taught me about rifts, particularly this one, it just _shouldn’t_ be able to act that way.”

“Right again. So why is it?” They were silent for a few moments, mulling it over.

“What if,” Rose began slowly. “What if… it’s not?”

Jack stopped pacing again and stared at Rose. “What?”

“When we were here together, before, and Margaret the Slitheen was trying to get away from Earth, she had that extrapolator thing to use as a surfboard. She was going to open the rift and _use_ it, use the energy blast created by opening it to get away.”

Jack’s eyes widened as he realized where Rose’s train of thought was headed. “Oh, Rose. This is bad. This is bad, bad, bad.”

“What if he’s managed to get through a small hole, only takes a comparatively little bit of energy for one person…”

“But there’s more he wants to bring. Lots more.” They stared at each other in horror. “I’ve got to run some figures. We’ve got to see if we can figure out if there is a tear in the universe somewhere.” As he spoke, he was lunging for his office door. Rose was out of her chair in seconds, following him to where Tosh and Ianto were huddled around the computers.

“Tosh!” Jack yelled. “Pull up program-“ he paused, frustrated. “Christ, I can’t even remember. Never thought I’d use it.” He reached the computers, Rose close behind, and began punching keys. “Four-five-six? No, four-five-eight.”

As soon as Jack finished typing, numbers ran across the screen with blurring speed. On another screen, maps of the world flashed by as if being scanned. A long, wide strip of paper began to feed out of the computer, a graph and some other data printed on it. Rose and Jack huddled together over the paper.

“Jack.” Rose’s voice held shock and fear.

“I see it.”

Tosh and Ianto peered over their shoulders, trying to see what they were looking at. Tosh was about to ask what was going on when Gwen walked into the Hub. Jack dropped the paper and turned his attention to her.

“Did he wake up?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he did. Tosh,” she asked, not noticing or not caring that the program running was one she didn’t recognize, “can you bring up the CCTV of the vaults? Er, just leave it on screen, I know it sounds crazy, but…”

“Sure, no problem,” Tosh replied soothingly.

“Thank you,” Gwen said to Jack and Rose. “For helping me bring him here.” They nodded solemnly.

“I can’t understand how Bilis was able to show you that vision.”

Gwen shook her head. “It was so real, Tosh. I was in my flat. It smelled like my flat, it had all the sounds of my flat.” Jack moved to stand closer to Gwen as she began speaking faster and with more panic. “I touched the blood. I can still feel it on my hands.” Jack took her hand in his and squeezed gently. “Rhys’ blood,” she muttered, quieter now. Jack kissed her knuckles.

“Not gonna happen.”

Jack glanced around at his team and at Rose, and felt a stab of guilt over the fear in all of their faces. “Come on,” he said bracingly. “We’ve still got work to do.” He reached for the void data still spitting out of the printer, but before he could reach it, the lights went out and the klaxon sounded.

“What’s going on?” asked Ianto.

“We’ve got a security breach,” Tosh said in horror.

Jack made a grab for Rose, and finding her beside him took a deep breath. “All right, everyone calm down-“ he began.

“Rhys!” Gwen suddenly yelled. She sprinted away from the group and towards the vaults, Jack close behind.

Rose moved to follow, but Ianto grabbed her arm. “Stay. We don’t know the situation down there. Jack would want you here.”

Rose nodded. When Jack and Gwen returned, Rhys’ lifeless body in Jack’s arms, she was guiltily glad she hadn’t followed them.


	6. Chapter 6

Rose stood with Ianto and Tosh, pressed against the walls watching Jack carefully clean Gwen’s hands. Gwen was staring hopelessly at Rhys’ body on the table in front of her.

“I’ll have to tell his family.”

“We’ll deal with it,” Ianto said flatly.

“The way you dealt with that porter the first time I met you?” Gwen’s voice was cold. “No, you won’t deal with him, Ianto.”

“Gwen, I’m so sorry,” Tosh tried, but Gwen laughed bitterly in response.

“You never even met him.” Jack stopped wiping Gwen’s hand. “This is what happens here,” she said, looking up at him, then shifting her gaze to the trio against the wall. “We all end up alone.” She stared sightlessly for a moment, before a new fire came into her eyes. “No. Not me.” She looked back up at Jack.

“You bring him back.”

“No.” He turned and walked towards the wall.

“The resurrection gauntlet…”

“Was destroyed,” Ianto finished.

“Something else, then.”

“I said no,” Jack said firmly.

“No,” Gwen said, her voice strained with grief and panic. “There’s something wrong with time, so we…” she glanced wildly around at her four companions. “We can go back to the moment, to the very moment…”

Jack glanced at Rose and saw sad understanding in her face, at Tosh and Ianto and saw distress and sympathy. “Gwen,” he said softly.

“There’s something you can do,” she wailed, “otherwise _what’s the fucking point of you_?” She launched herself at him, pounding on his chest and screaming. “You! You bring him back! Bring him back!” She sobbed. “You bring him back to me! Do you understand me, Jack Fucking Harkness?”

“Gwen, I’m sorry,” he managed, struggling to hold her against him.

“Do you?” she sobbed, before collapsing against him. The room was silent except for Gwen’s sobs and Jack’s litany of ‘I’m sorry’ echoing in the empty space. Rose felt a tear slip unbidden down her cheek.

Suddenly, Owen burst into the room. “Oh shit,” he exclaimed when he registered the scene in front of him. “What happened?”

“You came back!” Toshiko exclaimed, suddenly brighter. But Owen had eyes only for Gwen. He raced to her and Jack and grabbed her out of Jack’s arms.

“Are you all right?” he searched her face. “Are you all right?”

She pushed him away roughly. “Don’t touch me!” She stumbled back to her chair at the table where Rhys’ body lay.

Owen glared at Jack. “How many more people have to suffer? How many because you won’t take a risk, because you want to protect _her_?” he added, gesturing at Rose. “I’m gonna fix this,” he announced. “I’m going to open the damn rift.” He ran up the stairs and out of the room. Ianto moved to follow him.

“Make sure you stop him,” Jack said firmly.

“No,” Ianto replied, and followed Owen’s path out the door. Toshiko was close behind.

“We’re going to help him,” she said as she left the room.

Gwen shot out of her seat, a manic expression on her face. “Bilis was right; he said open the rift and everything goes back to normal. Owen’s right.” She hustled towards the stairs. “I’m going to get my Rhys back,” she yelled over her shoulder as she raced out of the room.

Jack and Rose stared at each other in horror. “They open the rift and Bilis gets what he wants, brings whatever it is down on us,” Rose said frantically.

“I know.” He and Rose sprinted after the others, Jack grabbing his gun on the way out.

By the time they’d reached the team, Jack had stuck his gun in his waistband. “Step away from the computer, Gwen.” Owen stepped between the two of them. “This is a trap,” Jack said calmly. “All these cracks around the world, they’re diversions. This is what Bilis wants.” Though he didn’t turn to look at her, in his mind’s eye he could see Rose behind him, an earnest — if terrified — expression on her face, trying to help him convince a group of people she didn’t even really know of something none of them really understood. You could always count on Rose Tyler.

“What are you afraid of, Jack?” Owen asked caustically, throwing a glance at Rose. “That opening the rift will send her back where she came from? So even though for everyone else things have gone to hell, you won’t let us fix it because you won’t lose her?”

Behind Owen, Ianto murmured the password for Emergency Protocol One to Gwen. “I said ‘Move.’” Jack replied coldly, taking out his gun and aiming it at Owen. Everyone turned to look at him in shock.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tosh cried.

“Final warning.”

“Come on, Jack,” said Gwen.

Carefully conscious of Rose’s position behind him, wanting to stay between her and his team, Jack held his gun steady and elected to go with tough love. He was pretty sure it was the last card he had left to play anyway. “So you’re a united front now?” He glanced at them in turn. “Toshiko, the poor girl who’ll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he gets in a cage with a weevil, desperate to be mauled. Or Ianto, hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement. Your three comrades here pumped bullets into her, remember?”

“I’ve got to get Rhys back,” Gwen insisted.

“Yeah,” Jack said sarcastically. “’Coz you’re so in love with Rhys that you spend half your time in Owen’s bed.”

“Fuck you!” Gwen shouted, hitting Jack in the face and sending him falling backwards, Rose scrambling to get out of the way. He dropped his gun as he fell, and Owen picked it up.

“We’re relieving you of your command, ‘Captain.’ We’re opening the rift and getting back what we’ve lost!”

Rose watched, frozen and horrified, as Gwen returned to the computer while Owen held the gun on Jack. He started to get up, staring at Owen, trying to keep him focused on himself instead of Rose.

“Stay down!” Owen shouted.

Willing Rose to stay where she was, to get down and stay down, Jack adopted a cocky smile. “You wanna be in charge, Owen? You’ve gotta have significantly bigger balls.” He stood up.

Rose had always thought people were just being melodramatic when they said bad things happened in slow motion. But the moment Owen pulled the trigger, she understood that she was wrong. It seemed to take ages for the bullet to reach Jack, even longer for him to fall, but Rose was frozen in place. When he hit the ground, it was as if everything stopped.

Dimly, she heard Owen mutter about hating being doubted, and managed to tear her gaze away from Jack’s prone body. In that stereotypical slow motion, she whipped her head up to face Owen. The look she threw at him was so full of naked anguish and fury that he swung the gun around to aim for her. But time was resuming its normal pace, and as she fought to suck in a breath, the anguish won and she turned her back on Owen and his gun.

She dropped to her knees next to Jack’s body, too shocked to even scream. She’d dealt well with her initial separation from Jack because she’d had the Doctor. She’d survived life without the Doctor because she’d had her family. She’d lost her family when she’d gotten pulled back into this world, but within moments Jack had been there and made up for that loss.

Around her the team was coming back to life, Gwen taking the gun from Owen, Ianto staring at the scene, shocked. But Rose’s world had shrunk to only herself and Jack’s body. Nothing registered beyond the knowledge of how brutally _alone_ she was. No Doctor. No family. And no Jack.

The numbness stayed with her until Owen crouched down to scan Jack’s retinas. She scrambled backwards, clambering up off the floor. The team stared at her, wide-eyed.

“You have _no idea_ what you’re doing,” she said, her voice a strange combination of firmness and helplessness. “You think you’re so clever, but you don’t _listen_.” She fixed each one of them with a glare. “You have no idea what you’re bringing down on us. Bilis wanted the rift open for a _reason_ , but you don’t _care_. How can people that _selfish_ be charged with protecting the planet?”

Guilt seemed to creep into their eyes, but it didn’t stop Owen from scanning Jack’s retinas and turning back to the computer.

Rose dropped back to the floor next to Jack and laid her head on his chest. If the world was going to end, she was at least going to go out next to someone she loved. Gwen hit the buttons to open the rift, and all hell seemed to break loose. Which was why none of the others in the room noticed when Rose gasped in shock at the sound of Jack’s heart restarting under her ear.

They did notice, however, when he grabbed Gwen’s ankle, causing her to scream in alarm.

“Oh my God!” Owen exclaimed.

“What… have you done?” Jack said weakly, the hand not holding Gwen’s ankle clutching Rose’s hand as if it were up to him to prevent her falling back through the rift.

Before anyone could respond, a shaft of blue light both Jack and Rose knew all too well shot up through the roof of the Hub.


	7. Chapter 7

The group ran through the plaza above the Hub, Rose and Ianto supporting Jack between them.

“Keep moving!” Owen shouted.

“Everything’s going to fine, Jack,” Rose was murmuring in his ear. “We’ll get through this.”

“Why is she still here?” Owen yelled over his shoulder.

“Because she didn’t come through the rift,” Jack ground out. They stopped running briefly when they’d cleared the plaza. “She came through the hole in the universe,” he said raggedly, breathing hard. “The same one Bilis came through, and the same one he has probably made even bigger using the power of the rift.”

“What?” Gwen said, bewildered.

In the corner of his eye, Jack noticed Bilis standing close by. He nodded in Bilis’ direction. “You walked right into his plans.”

The team turned and stared, horrified, at Bilis.

“From out of the darkness, he is come.”

Rose pressed closer to Jack.

“What is he talking about?” Gwen yelled.

“Son of the Great Beast, cast out before time, chained in rock and imprisoned beneath the rift, on the edge of the void.”

“What?!” Gwen repeated.

Bilis looked up above them, crazed fervor in his eyes. “All hail Abaddon, the Great Devourer!”

Slowly, dawning horror filling their faces, the team turned around. “Oh, no.” Rose muttered. “Son of the Great Beast… because of course, throwing one into a black hole isn’t enough,” she began to ramble. “No, no, I get to have a run-in with the daddy _an’_ the son, and no handy-dandy black holes to throw this one into.”

“ _What_ is she going on about?” Tosh yelled.

“I told you,” Jack yelled back. “She traveled a lot.”

Behind them, Bilis was still calling to the monster. “Come to feast on life! The whole world will die beneath his shadow!”

The team stared on in horror as the beast moved through the city. Behind them, Bilis muttered something about his work being done, and vanished.

Gwen turned to Jack, who was leaning heavily on Rose. “How do we stop it?” She looked at Jack pleadingly. “Tell me what to do, Jack.”

Jack looked at the stricken faces of his team, looked at Rose. She nodded slightly, and Jack looked back at Gwen. “Just you. Get me and Rose to an open space.”

While Gwen drove to the outskirts of the city, Jack and Rose carried on an intense conversation in the backseat of the SUV, abandoning any pretense of discreetness in front of Gwen.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Rose choked out. “I can’t let you-“

“Rose, it’s the only way.”

She shook her head, her eyes brimming. “No, there has to be something else. You don’t know that you’ll make it.”

“Rose. In just the time I’ve known Gwen, I’ve been shot in the forehead twice. There have been countless other times I should have died, but didn’t. But I never felt like there was a reason. Until now.”

“But, Jack…”

“Something brought me back on Satellite 5, Rose. Maybe this is why.”

Rose let out a strangled sob. “Jack. It was _me_. _I_ brought you back on Satellite 5.” She fought back another sob. “I brought you back because I loved you and I couldn’t stand you being dead.”

Gwen was having some trouble keeping her eyes on the road rather than the rearview mirror. This conversation was getting interesting. She heard a distant roar and pumped the accelerator.

“ _You_ brought me back?” Jack stared at Rose in shock and felt licks of retroactive panic for her safety. “But he sent you home, he told me he sent you home.”

“He did. An emergency program on the TARDIS. Took me back to the Powell Estates and then shut down. Couldn’t get her to do anything, not even blink her lights. But then I remembered Margaret the Egg, and the TARDIS translating in my head, and the Doctor saying over and over that she’s alive. And me an’ my mum an’ Mickey managed to get that panel open, the one to the heart of the TARDIS.”

“Oh, Rose.”

“An’ I absorbed the Time Vortex. Controlled the ship, took her back. I am the Bad Wolf,” she intoned, her voice gaining a shadow of the goddess tone it had taken on when she’d had the Vortex inside her.

“ _You_ destroyed the Daleks.”

“I made them dust. Every single one, except the Cult of Skaro and the ones the Time Lords put in that damn bigger-on-the-inside prison ship. Must have missed them. And then I felt you lying there on the floor, lifeless. And I couldn’t… you’re so alive, Jack. You just shine. All the time, and I couldn’t stand that you… weren’t. So I brought you back.” She grabbed Jack’s hand and squeezed, her eyes pleading. “I only meant to bring you back, I didn’t mean to saddle you with…”

He put a finger on her lips. “Shh. Don’t be ridiculous. You are the reason I’m here, I can’t argue with that.”

“So then don’t.” They both knew she was referring to his plan for defeating the beast. He shook his head.

“Would you love me as much if I didn’t?”

Rose gave another broken sob and dropped her forehead to his knee. Her feelings for him were complex and difficult to classify and tied up tightly with her feelings for the Doctor, but he was right. She loved him for who he was, and the man he was would have to carry out the plan. He stroked her hair, an errant tear sliding down his own cheek.

“We’re here,” Gwen said softly, hating to interrupt. Rose shot up and looked out the window at the barren area where Gwen had stopped. Then they all piled out of the SUV. Jack staggered around the back and met Rose on the other side. She wrapped an arm around his waist and told herself she was supporting him, not clinging.

“So what exactly is your plan, then?” Gwen asked warily. She figured she knew, but didn’t want to believe it until Jack said it out loud.

“If Abaddon is the bringer of death, let’s see how he does with me.” Jack managed a cocky grin. “If he feeds on life, then I’m an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

“No,” Gwen insisted, stepping in front of Jack and Rose. “Wait, you’re too weak!”

“And if I waited longer, more people would die!” Jack softened a little, laid a hand on Gwen’s cheek. “Stay back, Gwen. I’d tell you to leave, but I know that you won’t. So please, just stay back.”

“Jack.”

“Gwen. Do as I say.” He twisted around, prying Rose’s hand from his side so that he could turn to face her. “You have to let me do this, Rose.” He brushed a hand through her hair, used his thumb to wipe away the tears running down her face. “You’ve saved me too many times to count. Let me do this for you.”

“Oh, bugger you,” she muttered, and grabbed his face in her hands. She pressed her mouth to his in a fierce but short kiss. “If you live through this, I’m going to kill you,” she rasped out. He touched his forehead to hers, then kissed her. It was a deeper kiss than they’d shared before, but it felt _right_ somehow. Jack may not have said the words, but Rose could feel his love for her in the kiss. Then it was over and just their foreheads were touching again. “Promise me you won’t leave me alone here,” she whispered, her voice sounding younger than he’d ever heard it sound.

He smiled a little, pulled back. “See you in Hell,” he said.

And he staggered down the road, away from Gwen and Rose, screaming for the beast to come and get him. Rose leaned against the SUV and let herself cry. Gwen, who was near tears herself, awkwardly put her arm around Rose’s shoulders. They stayed when the beast came, and they stayed while Jack screamed.

When the beast fell to the ground, Rose felt the rift closing, the Earth settling. An eerie silence descended on the city. Rose ran blindly towards the place where Jack had fallen, Gwen hard on her heels.

Together, they held his body and cried.


	8. Chapter 8

That evening, everyone was gathered in the morgue. Jack’s body, pale as death, was laid out in a body bag. Rose was in a chair next to him, having sworn that she’d lay down on top of him if anyone dared consider zipping him up and sticking him in the wall.

“He’ll come back,” she had insisted. “He wouldn’t _leave_ me.” Now Ianto stood behind her like a sentinel, still keeping watch over her as Jack had instructed such a short time ago. Toshiko was nearby, lost in her own thoughts.

Gwen and Owen stood off to the side, conversing in low tones.

“You’re certain?”

“He’s ice cold,” Owen assured her. “No vital signs.”

“He survived when you shot him.” She lowered her voice even more. “Apparently he survived getting shot by Dalek lasers, too.” Owen raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Gwen continued earnestly. “When I joined, he said he couldn’t die.”

Owen shook his head. “He was wrong.”

Gwen looked over at Jack. “I want to sit with him.”

“Gwen, it’s bad enough that she won’t budge…”

“I want to sit with him,” she repeated firmly. There was a chair on the other side of the table from where Rose was sitting, and Gwen sat down in it. She reached out to stroke the side of Jack’s face. Owen finally just nodded and turned to leave the room. Tosh and Ianto followed, Ianto brushing a feather-light touch across Rose’s shoulder before going.

Neither Rose nor Gwen spent much time away from the morgue over the next few days. Gwen only left to see Rhys, and Rose only left when Ianto dragged her away to pour tea down her throat or convince her to have a biscuit or sandwich.

On the fourth day, Toshiko confronted them. “It’s been days.” Neither Rose nor Gwen responded. “We have to face up to it,” she forged on. “He’s not coming back.”

Rose merely gripped his hand tighter and shook her head.

“I believe in him,” Gwen said.

“Let him go, Gwen. Rose,” she added, trying to get Rose to look at her. “You have to let him go.”

When she got no response from either woman, she shook her head and left them.

Some time later, Gwen stood from her chair. “I have to go see Rhys,” she said to Rose, who nodded absently. “I’ll have Ianto bring you some tea,” she added. Though they’d spent little time talking, she still felt like she and Rose had formed a bond over the course of their vigil. The younger woman shrugged slightly as if to say she didn’t care one way or the other. Gwen nodded her understanding. She squeezed Jack’s hand, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cool lips.

She had only made it a few feet when she heard something that stopped her in her tracks.

“Thank you.”

Rose and Gwen gasped simultaneously, Rose jumping to her feet and leaning over Jack, Gwen rushing back to his other side. Jack opened his eyes to see the two women leaning over him and smiled.

“Hello,” he said. Rose laughed weakly and Gwen smiled.

They helped him dress and smiled as the color rushed back into his skin. He still looked pale, but it was more of a recovering-from-a-bad-case-of-the-flu pale instead of dead-pale.

Rose hung back with Gwen when Jack returned to the Hub and reunited with the rest of the team. She smiled bemusedly when Ianto awkwardly held out his hand as if to shake Jack’s and pictured Jack rolling his eyes as he pulled Ianto in for a hug. Tosh glanced worriedly at Rose when Jack kissed Ianto, but Rose knew Jack well enough to be neither surprised nor upset by it. She sniffled a little when Jack let Owen cling and cry.

Later, Rose was helping Jack go through the files spread out in disarray over his desk when Gwen came in and sat down on the edge of the desk.

“What’s happened to the rift?” she asked without preamble.

Jack glanced at Rose, slightly surprised she hadn’t explained things to the others. Though from what Ianto had told him of the days he’d been dead, Rose hadn’t done much of anything but sit next to him silently, so perhaps it was not so surprising that she hadn’t explained.

“It closed up when Abaddon was destroyed. But it’s gonna be more volatile than ever.”

“We think whatever hole in the universe Bilis created closed as well,” Rose added. But she threw a worried glance in Jack’s direction. “We can’t be sure, though.”

“Not until we get all the computers back online. Then we can run the same tests we were running before, see what we can find.” He reached out and squeezed Rose’s arm. “It’ll be all right, Rose.” She nodded and mustered up a smile for Gwen.

But Gwen was still focused on her serious questions. “The visions we had. We all saw people we loved.” She watched Jack’s face carefully. “What did you see?”

Jack sighed. “Nothing.” He looked over at Rose. “There was nothing.”

“Probably knew you’d never go for it,” Rose murmured loyally.

“Jack…” Gwen pressed. “What _would_ have tempted you? What visions would have convinced you to open the rift?”

Jack hesitated a moment, staring sightlessly at the files on his desk. “The right kind of Doctor,” he said finally. Without another word or a backward glance at either Gwen or Rose, he left the office.

“Jack,” Gwen called after him. Rose touched Gwen’s shoulder lightly. “I’ll go after him.” She smiled. “He’ll be fine.”

Rose found Jack staring moodily at the hand in the jar she’d seen shortly after arriving. “Did it ever occur to you, Captain, that some people might find it odd that you keep a hand in a jar?” Jack said nothing, and Rose got close to the jar as she had previously. “You know,” she said pensively, “I could swear I’ve seen this hand before, but I can’t think…” she trailed off as a thought occurred to her, one she found somehow simultaneously horrible and wonderful.

“It’s not… it can’t be…” She pressed even closer, practically squishing her nose against the glass while Jack simply stood back and let her figure it out, a glimmer of pride flickering across his features. He loved to watch Rose Tyler’s mind work.

“When I took the Time Vortex into myself, it was going to kill me. But the Doctor took it from me and into himself, then put it back in the TARDIS, which saved me and would have killed him except for the Time Lords and their fancy regeneration habit.” She stepped back from the jar and began gesturing widely as she talked. “I was so freaked over the regeneration, the Doctor took me home for Christmas. Just in time to save the Earth from the Sycorax by having a swordfight in pajamas.” Her slightly shocked eyes met Jack’s amused ones. “A swordfight during which the Doctor lost a hand and regenerated a new one in the space of a few minutes.” Her mouth fell open.

“You have the Doctor’s hand!”

Jack nodded.

“How do you have the Doctor’s hand?”

Jack merely smiled. “I have my sources. We all need something by which to remember,” he continued, anticipating her next question. “You had a pair of 3-D glasses,” he guessed, though Rose had never said explicitly that they’d been the Doctor’s. “I have his hand.”

“Well,” Rose managed. “I suppose it doesn’t sound quite so odd when you put it that way.” She pressed her palm against the side of the jar. “Do you think he’ll ever come for us?”

“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “But I know this — the wait’ll be a lot more bearable now I’ve got you to wait with me.”

Rose smiled, her palm still pressed to the side of the jar. Suddenly, the glass heated up sharply. “Ouch!” she exclaimed, pulling her hand back. She and Jack stared at the jar. The hand was pulsing with light, and had Rose been inclined at that moment to flights of fancy she might have almost said it had waved at them.

Jack felt a huge grin spread over his face and knew without looking that Rose would be sporting one to match.

Then came the one sound they’d wanted most to hear, and not dared to believe that they ever would.

“Do you hear that, Jack?” Rose gasped, looking up at him excitedly. “I’m not making it up, right? You hear it, too?”

Jack beamed down at her. “I hear it, too.”

Dimly, they heard Gwen’s voice calling their names, her tone curious. But the wind was ruffling their hair, and without a thought for anyone else, they turned around and ran straight to the incongruous blue police box that had appeared ten feet behind them.

By the time Gwen got to the hub, they were gone.


End file.
